Star book critic Geoff Pevere asks authors at the International Festival of Authors about the creative process.

Star book critic Geoff Pevere asks authors at the International Festival of Authors about the creative process.

Guelph illustrator, designer and graphic novelist Seth, whose most recent title is George Sprott (1894-1975), will be interviewed with fellow cartoonist R.O. Blechman Saturday at noon in Harbourfront Centre's Brigantine Room.

How do you get started writing?

Being a cartoonist (or to use the dressed-up term, "graphic novelist") is slightly different from being a prose writer. A lot of your "writing" is actually done with a pencil and a pad, working out little thumbnail breakdowns of panel arrangements with jots of dialogue in the borders. However, there are also lots of times when you need to just sit down and pound out a script, especially if there are a lot of narration boxes in the comic. I have no fancy starting method. I just pull out the typewriter (yes, an old typewriter is still often employed) and get to it, though it is rarely a blank slate I am starting from – usually there are years worth of notes to work from.

How do you avoid getting started writing?

I can avoid it for a long time simply by drawing. Again, more than half my job isn't writing at all in the traditional sense, so there is lots of procrastination-drawing that can be done to keep you away from the "writing." There are sketchbooks to be drawn in, commercial illustrations to be finished, graphic design stuff to design and comic strips to finish drawing (ones you've already previously worked out the writing). There can seriously be months of this sort of procrastination before you get back to the "writing."

Where do you write?

In the past few years, I have found that going to a hotel room is a good way to get away from my studio. The problem with writing in the studio is that there are always lots of visual art chores that need to be done (see question above). When I seriously have to write, it is a nice luxury to go to that hotel room and just get it done!

What is the optimal creative atmosphere?

Autumn. Rainy and grey day. Quiet. No outside pressures (horrible deadlines or impending travel). A genuine enthusiasm for the particular story at hand. Inner peace.

Do you have any writing idiosyncrasies?

Well, I guess still using a typewriter for anything counts as an idiosyncrasy nowadays. I do write on the computer more than I did a couple of years ago, but generally that's more article-type writing. When I go to the hotel, I don't have a laptop so that's out, right there. I just take my old portable. I must admit though, I worry a bit that the typewriter is too loud for modern folk. Those keys make a lot of noise. The hotel I frequent is an old joint though, and in the smoking wing I don't think anyone cares about noise. Oh yeah – I often let myself fall off the no-smoking wagon if I have to do some real writing. Usually just for a day though, so it's no big deal. No worry of getting hooked again.

Do you actually like writing?

No, not straight prose-type writing. It requires too much concentration. That sounds odd (or maybe lazy), but cartooning is a very different mental process. When you are drawing you use a different part of the brain and it does not require the rigid mental discipline that prose writing does. Your mind is free to wander. It's a state open to digression and reverie. It leads to a lot of interesting meandering of thought, which often finds its way into the work at hand (or the next one). Writing a graphic novel does take real writerly focus (just like the prose writers), but you tend to do this kind of writing in short doses. The long stretches spent in making comics is always devoted to the drawing. A long laborious process.

Geoff Pevere

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